Intern Hackday 2012
Editor’s Note: LinkedIn’s 2nd Annual Intern Hackday is on August 3rd, 2012. To get an idea of what goes down at Intern Hackday, check out this recap by Hristo Oskov whose team placed 3rd in our first Intern Hackday last summer.
I'm extremely fortunate to have been a part of LinkedIn's first intern hackday last summer. It was an incredible experience and easily the highlight of my summer. LinkedIn invited all Bay Area interns to participate, so I got to hack with students from top-tier universities all over the country and top-tier tech companies from all over Silicon Valley. We saw a variety of incredible hacks, including a 3D hardware-accelerated WebGL game (ROCKS), a speaking artificial intelligence knowledge engine (Sherlock), and a VNC Client implemented using only JS/HTML5 (JSVNC). Here’s a taste of the creativity, energy, and innovation we saw last year:
[embed]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUKFJUttBOo[/embed]
LinkedIn went all out to make sure the hackday was as smooth and as fun as possible. Food was always coming in, even at 3am, and there were enough drinks and snacks to keep everyone caffeinated throughout the night. After hacking all night, each team presented their hacks; 15 teams were picked as finalists and got to present to guest judges Kevin Scott, Omar Hamoui, and James Gosling for a chance to win prizes (Macbook Airs and iPads). I was stunned to find out my team's hack was selected as one of the winners, placing in 3rd, and I felt truly honored when the judges recognized our work. We got to meet James Gosling (the creator of Java!), who suggested that we launch our hack: "[...] some of the most successful companies started off as just a box [...]". A little while later, http://justbeamit.com was live.
It was not by chance that the hackday was so awesome: it reflected every bit of LinkedIn's unique culture. I'm ecstatic to be joining LinkedIn full-time in August and to see what happens at the 2012 Intern Hackday, which takes place on August 3rd! I'm super excited to see this year's hacks!